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From what I've read on the Spiderweb forums, at the beginning you have to pour everything into the respective combat stats and skills (Strength + Melee for fighters, Dex + Missiles for archers and Intelligence + Priest/Mage spells for priests/mages).

For the first tank that will soak the damage try also to get a few points of Hardiness and Parry.

The consensus is that for the melee fighters dual wielding (available only with swords and daggers) is superior to weapon+shield and two-handed weapons.

Aside from that Tool Use (go for 5 in the first few towns, raise to 7-8 later) helps at the beginning.
From my experience two or three points in First Aid are handy too.

The skills Tool Use, Cave Lore, First Aid and Arcane Lore get pooled across the whole party, so there is no need for a designated thief or sage.

Don't buy or sell anything until level 8, where you should get the trait Negotiator for everyone. Money is tight and 4 * Negotiator gives you 4 * 10% better prices when selling (and buying?).
At level 12 get Sage Lore - it lowers the Arcane Lore requirements for spell books by 3 for each person that has it.

I'm playing it right now, actually. I'm only level three but I'm already addicted. I like that you can build all your characters from scratch if you want (unlike Geneforge and Avadon where you had to pick classes). Although, from what I've read hybrid classes don't seem to be as effective strength wise on harder difficulties. I also love the fact that the map is traversable, rather than just a static map with clickable locations like the other spiderweb games.

The game does seem to require alot of metagaming before you start (unlike, say, Avadon which you could dive right into). I'm currently doing a torment game so I tried to read up on what skills are best and whatnot just because I don't want to get to the end and realize I have to start over.

A stray question in case anyone knows: is there a penalty for getting caught stealing? It gives you a message "you got caught stealing" when someone sees you do it, but I can't seem to recognize any real effect this has.

One of the tips on the loading screen says getting caught commiting a crime you can get some sort of curse on you (not sure the effects). It's actually one of the medals/achievements to get the curse and have it lifted.

I don't like the skill system either, especially how it's displayed. The layout is confusing, and icons are more opaque than plain old text. I still think Jeff's UI design peaked with Blades of Exile - see, items are displayed with icons *and* text. Isn't that the most visually satisfying and easy to use?

Currently playing Avadon on a tablet, and it's a blast. Looking forward to giving this a go, too.

Avadon was a lot of fun and this is even better. Where Avadon's story took you on a pretty linear path, in Avernum you can explore as much as you want - the whole world is available from the start. Of course whether you survive high-level areas is another question, but some creatures can be evaded with a bit of luck (and Cave Lore). :)

Out of curiosity, if you were going to recommend a Spiderweb game (and "I wouldn't" is a legit answer here) which would it be? I've never played any of his stuff.

Exile III of course. It's the best Exile game by some margin. The first three Avernum games are remakes of the three Exile games and are inferior in almost ever way, even graphically (2D tile graphics look far better). The last few Avernum games were made in an updated engine that borrowed code from Geneforge. The combat was somewhat improved from the earlier Avernum games. You might like them.

Having said that, if you like a good story, "choices and consequences" and want to only create a single protagonist then you'd prefer the Geneforge games to any others. However, you've probably got better taste than that.

I don't know much about Avadon and I don't know much about this Exile/Avernum re-re-make. I have read that Avadon is linear and watered down, but I don't remember the details, nor any defining features to make my own judgement (again).

Exile III of course. It's the best Exile game by some margin. The first three Avernum games are remakes of the three Exile games and are inferior in almost ever way, even graphically (2D tile graphics look far better). The last few Avernum games were made in an updated engine that borrowed code from Geneforge. The combat was somewhat improved from the earlier Avernum games. You might like them.

Good to know, thanks.

Having said that, if you like a good story, "choices and consequences" and want to only create a single protagonist then you'd prefer the Geneforge games to any others. However, you've probably got better taste than that.

I lack your level of antipathy to games of that sort (I just consider them something of a separate, overpopulated genre), but it depends a bit on the details. Is it still party based, with pre-made NPC's, or are we talking pure solo?